Scripture: Mark 5:21-43

Scripture is from II Kings chapters, 22 and 23

Mark             Sometimes I get tired of trying to pronounce names that have come from languages that use a different alphabet. Especially since the individual seems to have little significance to the story.

Vicki             And the bible tries to identify the person using references that have no known  reference to us. And sometimes it seems like the names of even the kings do not matter because they differ only in the details of what evil they did. Just a repetitive cycle that just repeats over and over again in a of redundancies.

Mark             With these common complaints in mind, here is this morning’s scripture. Basically from II Kings chapter 22 &23 but with some context leading in and commentary. If this worries you, read it in your bible to see exactly what it says. In some translation of an ancient language. That used a different alphabet. From multiple ‘original texts’ that do not agree with each other. But to start somewhere:

Vicki             The king did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Mark             When he died, is son became king and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Vicki             When he died, is son became king and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Mark             When he died, is son became king and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Vicki             Wait… wasn’t this one a good king?

Mark             I lost track too. Maybe that is why we have names for them. Mostly they are bad, and “walked in the way his father had”.

Vicki             Yeah. Hezekiah was very good, his son was very bad, his grand son was really bad and only seemed a bit better because his father was so bad.

Mark             But then his son was Josiah. Josiah did “what was right in the sight of the Lord. “

Vicki             How did he manage not to keep the evil family traditions going?

Mark             Well, he began his reign when he was 8 years old. Maybe he was just too young to have learned the bad stuff? But he gets compared to David favorably. We know who his mother and grandmother are, maybe they are mentioned because of their positive influence.

Vicki             Who are they?

Mark             I cannot pronounce the names. There are symbol things over the vowels. Just like the names for three guys that Josiah sends to do stuff. So, just pick up where King Josiah tells those three guys what to do.

Vicki             “Go up to the high priest Hilkiah, and have him count the entire sum of the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people; let it be given into the hand of the workers who have the oversight of the house of the Lord; let them give it to the workers who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house, that is, to the carpenters, to the builders, to the masons; and let them use it to buy timber and quarried stone to repair the house. But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.”  

Mark             The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan?… Shuffen? … Shufflen?.. the king’s secretary, “I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.” When Hilkiah gave the book to Shaeffan?… the king’s secretary, he read it.  Then the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workers who have oversight of the house of the Lord.” Then shhhaa… the secretary informed the king, “The priest Hilkiah has given me a book.” The Secretary then read it aloud to the king.

Vicki             When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded the priest Hilkiah, and his servants with the hard to pronounce names saying,

 Mark            “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”  So the priest Hilkiah, and the others went to the prophetess Huldah who is described by lineage but with unknown names. She resided in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter, where they consulted her. She declared to them,

Vicki             “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says the Lord, I will indeed bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have abandoned me and have made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. But as to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the Lord. Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place.”

Mark             They took the message back to the king.

Vicki             Then the king directed that all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem should be gathered to him. The king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him went all the people of Judah, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; those with names easy to pronounce and those with names that sound like alphabet hash, and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.

Mark             The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All the people joined in the covenant.

Vicki             Then, because words are not action, King Josiah cleaned house. He literally clean the House of the Lord of everything dedicated to Baal and Asherah the fertility god and goddess and Molech who liked children sacrificed to him. Everything that his ancestors had put in the Temple but was not holy to YHWH. Even horses dedicated to the sun were removed and the chariots burned. Then he destroyed all the fertility shrines in the high places of Judah. And the altar in Bethel erected by Jeroboam he burned. And the shrines in Samaria he burned and he destroyed the priests. Even if Solomon built it, if it was not Holy to the Lord our God, it was defiled, destroyed, and turned to dust.

Mark             And then?

Vicki             Then Josiah returned to Jerusalem.  The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God as prescribed in this book of the covenant. No such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel before King Saul, David, or Solomon: even during all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah; but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.

Mark             This ends the reading of today’s scripture lesson.